Everything made from scratch, and everything vegan! And no, you won't know the difference, really! Like in most cases, you can make most of this way in advance, so it's quite a handy meal to have at the ready just in case.
Ingredients:
Tagliatelle (serves 4 people as a first course):
300gr flour (you can use plain flour, or 150gr plain flour and 150gr fine semolina)
150gr water
5gr fine salt
1 heaped tsp turmeric
Ingredients for the Ragu' (Bolognese sauce):
Seitan dough (makes 400gr of cooked seitan):
130gr vital wheat gluten
30gr chick pea flour
130gr water
Seitan broth:
3 carrots
2 celery sticks
2 onions
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp dried or fresh thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried or fresh sage
1 Tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp whole red/pink peppercorns
2 bayleaves
3 lt water
Sauce (this is enough for 8 people):
4 garlic cloves
4 slugs of olive oil (more than in the usual recipe, as seitan isn't as fatty as mince meat)
1 big brown onions (do not use red onions, as they're too sweet)
1 very small carrot (don't use more, otherwise it'll be too sweet)
1 celery stick
400gr seitan
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tsp ground nutmeg (seitan absorbs the flavours tremendously, so you'll use more nutmeg than usual)
1 bayleaf
Method:
Start by preparing the seitan (first the broth, then the seitan), which you can keep in its broth in the fridge for 4-5 days or freeze
Then make the Ragu', which would be best if prepared one day in advance of serving, and can keep in the fridge up to 3 days
You can make the tagliatelle in advance and freeze them, or dry them in the oven as described here
Make the seitan broth by chopping all the vegetables, adding the herbs etc and topping with cold water - bring it to the boil and let it simmer for at least 1 hour or 2
Make the seitan by combining the flours and the water (don't add all the water at once: your objective is a nice soft dough that's not too sticky, so you mightn't use all the water)
Strain the broth and bring it to the boil
Divide the seitan in 3 balls so that the broth will penetrate the dough quite well while cooking
As you'll use this seitan in place of mince meat, you don't need to retain its shape, so no need to wrap the pieces in gauze before cooking
Drop the seitan pieces in the boiling broth, ensuring to use a pot big enough, given that the seitan will at least double its volume while cooking
DO NOT let it boil hard: keept it always on a gentle simmer (so keep an eye on it during the cooking time)
Cook the seitan for 1 hour, then let it cool in its own broth
TIP: Do not let the seitan dry out, always keep it in its own broth and pat it dry with a kitchen towel just before chopping it up
TIP: You can freeze the left over broth for next batch of seitan
Make the sauce using the ingredients above and following this recipe, using the seitan very finely chopped with a big chef knife instead of the mince meat
Also: because seitan is already cooked and does not want to be cooked for a long time afterwards (otherwise it gets chewy), make the sauce without adding the seitan at the beginning (as you'd do for the mince meat) but rather, add the seitan once the sauce is almost ready, some 40 mins into it, and let it simmer for no more than 10-15 mins
Make the tagliatelle using the ingredients above and following this recipe, however, make these as thin as possible
TIP: When cooking the tagliatelle, remember these are vegan, so they'll cook in no time: 30-40 seconds maximum!
TIP: Dress the tagliatelle as soon as they're drained, and serve them with vegan parmesan if you have it